Today I had the day off from work to attend E3 ("BE SURE TO MARK YOUR TIMESHEETS WITH JOB CODE E3-001!!!") and I thought it might be nice to try taking the LA (cough) transit system to the show. The Blue Line runs from near my house (7 miles away) and drops you off at the Convention Center. Sounds easy!

On my drive to the station I was thinking how cool it was that we had a public transit system that came to my town about 40 miles south of LA. I should start using it more, I thought. I wondered if I could start riding it to work. Maybe I could get a second car and leave it at the station near my office. Or a bike. Why hadn't I ridden it before? I love public transportation!

According to MapQuest the terminal is on a street called "American Way" (har) off Willow. But when I make the turn there is no "American Way" and I spent about 10 minutes driving around an Albertson's grocery store parking lot before I realize that "American Way" is just a tiny side street that dead ends into a parking garage.

I park my car in front of the grocery store and walk to the sign that says Blue Line Terminal. From the sign I can see the actual entrance to the terminal which is about a block a way. As I walk over to the real terminal some kids in the playground next to the platform are yelling at me that their ball has gone over the fence and that they'd like me to toss it back to them. They start every sentence with "Sir" or "Hey Mister" and I smile at the absurdity of calling a guy wearing a headbug shirt "Mister". As I walk it over to the fence one of the kids yells at me to, "Kick it over, faggot!"

"Mister" I can deal with, but "faggot" is so extraordinarily rude I almost want to keep the ball and sit at the terminal with it. I decide I don't need any trouble with fifth graders and toss it over the fence. As I was winding up I was thinking to myself, "don't throw like a faggot, don't throw like a faggot" which, I'm not sure what that means, but I figured I needed to seem "manly". So far this is my day: trying not to seem like a faggot in front of some 5th graders while stradling the American Way.

I cross the tracks and step up onto the platform only to find out that I have a wad of $20's and no small bills. The machine accepts only $1's and $5's and so I realize I have to trek back to the grocery store to break one of my bills. As I cross the rails, the alarm rings that the train is about to arrive. I now have to wait 30 minutes for the next train.

By now it's been nearly thirty minutes since I left my house and I was looking at 30 more minutes until I'd get on the train. The sun was really heating things up and there was hardly any wind blowing. So after waiting in a very long line at the grocery store to buy a pack of gum I have to walk by my car. My car...

It was then that the Los Angeleno in me took over. I am happier in my car. Nobody calls me "faggot" and I can run the A/C until my headbug grows horns. I drove to the Convention Center today thinking, "they should really run those trains more frequently...there'd be less traffic for me".


comments

Joerg

Finally some 'fiction' again. Nice one mate.


Jason Scheirer

Oh god, public transportation in the greater Southern California area. What a joke. It took me twice as long and cost more than the gas would have to take the Metrolink from Riverside to Chinatown a little while ago. I, too, love my car.


Dave

Consider your self lucky, it only gets worse once you actually get on the train. I take the bus every day, not one of them has a window that will open. I wish I had a car.


skampy

ain't nothing fictitious about the fear of throwing like a fag, i'll tell you what.


Andre Torrez

Hey, my first two years in Los Angeles I had to ride the bus everyday to UCLA. They are memories I would like to forget.

Nothing like the LA riots going down and you have to stand and wait for a bus that won't be coming. So you end up walking a few miles while cop cars are swooshing by and there's smoke in the sky. Scary shit.


Justin

Yeah, public transport in the LA area sucks severely... amazing when you consider that it (apparently) used to be great before all the trolley lines were ripped up and replaced by freeways.

I love listening to NPR when they discuss LA public transportation. It's all like, "public transport is shit! The trains are never on time, they never go near where you want, it's wierd sitting near other people, and it's expensive too! cars are much better apart from the traffic, pollution and high gas prices!" -- totally missing the point that when one's underfunded, and the other is well-funded, that's what's going to happen...

but: nice try, though, and a good story!


eggbert

oh my fucking god what a great story.


sixfoot6

I take the Red line and the 200 Alvarado street from the Valley to USC every day, and I have fewcomplaints. It's nice to be able to read instead of sitting in traffic for an hour... and no parking concerns. And somehow, the subway makes LA seem more like a real city, (I'm from the east coast) and I need that.

Also: good story, faggot.


nikko

most public transportation sucks, except the trolly in Tampa, FL is really cool. It takes you to yBor city (little cuba) for $3.oo (all-the-trollies-you-can-stand-to-ride price)


nikko

most public transportation sucks, except the trolly in Tampa, FL is really cool. It takes you to yBor city (little cuba) for $3.oo (all-the-trollies-you-can-stand-to-ride price)

Also: quit posting like a faggot


Peter Cooper

The only really decent public transport in LA, IMHO, is the Metro red line but, uh, only if you live near one of the stations ;-) Still, it's nice and regular, runs 'late ish', and has buses mirroring much of its route at night. The blue line, however, now that's an experience. It's nice enough in Long Beach, but it's the rest of it that's interesting *g*

(The other benefit of driving is you don't keep getting constantly hawked by street folk, although don't always count on this, as I had a guy banging on the window of Baskin Robbins in LB asking for change!)


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